The Election Commission of India has capped the number of voter deletion requests that an individual can file at 10 during the entire claims and objections period of electoral roll drafting, and five a month during continuous updation. The limits apply to both online and offline applications in Form 7, which are used to object to the inclusion of a name or seek deletion from the voter list.
Chief Minister DK Shivakumar has accused BJP-linked individuals of attempting to remove eligible voters and demanded a criminal investigation. Complaints in several constituencies have led to FIRs over alleged false or forged deletion applications. It has now prescribed a uniform limit for both modes of filing.
The directive comes amid a widening controversy, particularly in Karnataka, over alleged bulk filing of Form 7 applications during the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. Under Rule 13(2) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, Form 7 objections can be filed only by a person whose name is already on the electoral roll of the constituency concerned. The EC permits recognised political parties’ Booth Level Agents (BLAs) to submit up to 50 forms a day before publication of the draft roll during the revision exercise, and 10 a day thereafter.
Karnataka’s Chief Electoral Officer has said that no voter had been deleted on the basis of the objections received, even as the scale of the filings prompted scrutiny. The poll body said it had received reports of individual electors filing objections in bulk on unsubstantiated grounds, causing inconvenience to voters whose names were challenged and increasing the workload of field officials. The commission said the rules had not specified a numerical cap for physical forms submitted in bulk by individual electors, leaving the matter to Electoral Registration Officers.
